Spring has definitely sprung and today would have been a great night to BBQ. BUT since I had some stew meat to use up, I decide to pull out the good old reliable slow cooker perhaps one last time until the Fall (?) and make a nice hearty beer infused beef carbonnade. It’s a Belgian dish and I choose this time to use a dark beer or more specifically Rickards Dark (an English style porter) because I had it on hand.

I initially found the flavour quite strong so I added in some beef broth to help mellow it a bit. And take the edge off it did….however the flavour of the dark ale was still present (and yummy by all accounts). We served it with a cheesy mashed potato.

In a pan heat your oil & butter over medium-high. Season your chicken pieces then place in pan careful not to overcrowd pan. Get your chicken nice and crispy brown on one side, than flip the chicken pieces and do the same on the other side. Remove from heat and set aside.

In crock pot add your onions, garlic, marjoram, thyme, bay leaves, broth, wine and a little pinch of salt & pepper. Add your browned chicken pieces on top and cook on low 6-8 hours or until chicken is nice and tender. Fish out your bay leaves and discard. Turn control to HIGH.

In a small bowl mix together cornstarch and water stirring to combine. Add to chicken mixture. Now put the lid back on crock pot while you make your dumplings.

In a medium bowl combine biscuit mix with parsley and milk, mixing with a fork until moistened. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto chicken mixture in crock pot. Put cover back on and cook approximately 30 minutes more or until dumplings are cooked in centers (test with fork or toothpick).

Good soup on a cold, fall/winter day. Many variations of Minestrone soup available, this is one version we enjoy. We prefer to cook our pasta and add it separately so as it sits and/or overnight it does not soak up all the soup broth.

I come from a good mix of Ukranian, German and Romanian decent. As such I grew up eating Holubtsi (cabbage rolls), Borscht, Sauer Kraut (fermenting somewhere in the house) and Pierogi. There were all kinds of German baking and pasteries that came our way regularly as well. And so yum.

While I prefer to buy my Sauer Kraut because I only have time to make wine, (not sauer kraut!) I do make certain items from scratch. Cabbage rolls are one of them. Easy to prepare and delicious to eat. Even easier is when they are done in your crockpot. My mother would make them with tomato juice, nothing else and bake them in an oven. I prefer tomato sauce and I love my crockpot! If you’ve never rolled a cabbage roll before – give it a try! You will find it easier than you think.

Here we go…
Immerse cabbage leaves in a large pot of boiling water and cook about 3 minutes or until limp. Drain leaves and set aside.

In bowl combine egg, milk, onion, beef, rice, salt and pepper.

Depending on the size of your cabbage leaf, place 2-3 tbsp meat filling in middle of leaf. You do not want to much that it over flows or too less that it is not enough to fill the cabbage leaf. Tuck in sides and roll ends over meat mixture. Set aside. Continue on until you have used all your meat filling. You may have leftover cabbage leaves.

In bowl mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice and worcestershire sauce. Spoon a little on the bottom of your slow cooker. Place your cabbage rolls into the crockpot covering the bottom first and then layering as necessary. Pour the sauce over the cabbage rolls, cover and cook on low 6-7 hours.

Sometimes I add in even more tomato sauce since we enjoy alot of sauce with our cabbage rolls. These freeze well and make approx. 12 cabbage rolls.

Crockpot or Slowcooker? You will see I can not decide which term to use in this post. Either way in the photo of the casserole I have not included the bread crumb Topping. Sometimes they like it…other times they don’t. And so this time it was grated cheese as the Topper of choice.

Slow Cooker recipes are all the rage again. Everywhere you look there are slowcooker recipes showing up left, right and centre. Even Rachael Ray, a confessed non crockpot fan has been presenting crockpot recipes on her show the past 2 years (perhaps ratings were low?).

In August 2011 many people became aware of theCrockin Girls,(formally Crockpot Girls) a couple of Southern ladies who decided to team up, create a page on Facebook and share some of their crockpot recipes. What they didn’t plan on was getting over 1 million followers in a matter of weeks! Who knew there was such a void in the market for crockpot recipes.

As for me – I am happy to see the explosion of slowcooker recipes since I’ve been using mine for the last 20 years and love the variety of recipes to try and of course dinner ready at the end of a long day.

Here is one that 3/4 Bakers enjoy. Think of this as a healthy (no additives) slowcooker hamburger helper. You can use any ground meat you want…I’ve tried both ground beef and chicken.

Get Busy
In a saucepan heat your oil and cook your ground meat until nicely browned. Set aside.

In same saucepan cook your onions and celery adding another drop of oil as necessary. Cook until softened. Add garlic, mustard, oregano, salt, pepper and cook for about 1 minute stirring continuously. Then add in your beef broth and tomato sauce stirring until blended. Add in your cream cheese and stir until melted.

Now you are ready to assemble your meal. Spray your slow cooker with Pam. Spoon in approx. 1 cup of cooked ground meat spreading all over bottom. Add a layer of cooked noodles and then some sauce. Repeat until all ingredients used, finishing with the sauce.

Now alternately you can pour all the meat on the bottom, spread all the noodles on top and then pour the sauce all over (covering entirely) the noodles. Both ways work.

Turn on low. In my slowcooker this meal is done in 3-4 hours.

Your topping (if using) goes on the last 30 minutes of cooking (or until bubbling), just to melt the cheese a little. During this time you can drink some wine and ask your partner to make a salad! Enjoy.

I grew up eating roasts that had been over cooked and had absolutely no flavour. I remember covering it with HP Sauce and trying to choke it down since I was “made” to eat it. Two things came from this, A) I am not a huge Roast Beef fan and B) I will never force my kids to eat something they don’t like!!

I am however someone who loves to cook and is married to a Carnivore of English decent (think beef & potatoes). Plus I want my kids to grow up enjoying a wide range of foods. And so we/I cook Roasts several different ways (indirect grilling, rotisserie, slow cooker, dutch oven) and it always has to have a ton of flavour!

I came across this recipe awhile ago and have adapted it for our family making both with vodka and also red wine. If you can not find shiitake mushrooms use white or brown button mushrooms…they work just as well!

Tip. You can make this recipe and/or any crockpot recipe the night before…get everything ready the night before and put the covered stoneware right into your fridge. The next morning pull it out..plop it into it’s home, plug it in and get on with your day knowing supper will be ready when you get home. I did this alot when I worked outside of the house and my first born was in a dayhome!

1. Soak shiitake mushrooms in a hot tub (boiling water) for 30 minutes to plump. Strain through a sieve or colander reserving liquid. Pat mushrooms lightly to dry and finely chop. Set aside.

2. While the shiitake mushrooms are in their hot tub brown your roast over med-high heat in a pan with oil (make sure oil has been pre-heated and is sizzling). Once all sides on roast are brown deposit into your crockpot.

Tip. If you do not have dried shiitake mushrooms simply mince 4 button mushrooms and use in place of dried ones in recipe. I also add a splash of worchestershire sauce to the beef broth to give it another flavour boost.

4. Once boiling pour entire mixture over roast in crockpot and cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4-5 hours. Once roast is tender transfer to a plate and using a slotted spoon, remove solids from cooking liquid and arrange around roast. Cover with foil to keep warm.

5. Almost done….in a pan over medium heat, bring cooking liquid (you get this from the crockpot) to a boil. Add soya sauce (careful here depending the type of soya sauce it can make it salty), oyster sauce, hoisin sauce. Cook approx. 5 minutes to reduce and concentrate flavours. Stir in cornstarch mixture and cook a minute or two until it thickens.

Serve gravy with roast & mushrooms. Sides with this dish would be rice, mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles and your choice of veg or salad.

On a cold day this is an aromatic soup that warms your soul! With an Asian flair…it takes chicken soup to another level and makes you think you are in one of those tiny little hole in the wall vietnamese restaurants. Although not quite as good as their Pho…..it is Scrumptious!

Note: we finely shred the carrots because we get better results with the kids!

Heat a pot over medium heat adding oil. Add chicken and lightly brown. Add the garlic and ginger stirring for another minute. Then add the cumin, five spice powder, salt & pepper and carrots stirring to combine another minute. Add stock, bring to a boil and simmer (I simmer for at least 60 minutes if I have time to develop the flavours).